Reality and Our Worldview | The Road Less Traveled

Distinguishing what we are and what we are not responsible for in this life is one of the greatest problems of human existence.

For the entirety of our lives we must continually assess and reassess where our responsibilities lie.

We must possess the willingness and the capacity to suffer continual self-examination.

As adults, when we are physically healthy, our choices are almost unlimited. That does not mean they are not painful.

There are indeed oppressive forces at work within the world. We have, however, the freedom to choose every step of the way the manner in which we are going to respond and deal with these forces.

They must learn that the entirety of one's adult life is a series of personal choices, decision. If they can accept this totally, then they become free people. To the extent that they do not accept this they will forever feel themselves victims.

The more clearly we see the reality of the world, the better equipped we are to deal with the world.

Only a relative and fortunate few continue until the moment of death exploring the mystery of reality, ever enlarging and refining and redefining their understanding of the world and what is true.

If our maps are to be accurate we have to continually revise them. The world itself is constantly changing. Glaciers come, glaciers go. Cultures come, cultures go. Even more dramatically, the vantage point from which we view the world is constantly and quite rapidly changing.

Sometimes when enough new information has accumulated, we must make very major revisions The process of making revisions is painful, sometimes excruciatingly painful.

Active clinging to an outmoded view of reality is the basis for much mental illness.

Truth or reality is avoided when it is painful. We can revise our maps only when we have the discipline to overcome that pain.

We must always hold truth, as best we can determine it, to be more iimportant, more vital to our self-interest, than our comfort.

Mental health is an ongoing process of dedication to reality at all costs.

Dr. M. Scott Peck

"The Road Less Traveled"

From Section I, "Discipline," subsections "Neuroses and Character Disorders," "Escape from Freedom," "Dedication to Reality," and "Transference: The Outdated Map"